The story debuted in director John Waters's original "Hairspray" movie in 1988. Waters, who also directed "Pink Flamingos" and other cult classics, has filmed many of his movies in his native Baltimore.
Producers of the new "Hairspray" decided to film in Toronto -- a decision based mostly on the fact that the Canadian city boasts soundstage facilities superior to Baltimore's.
But capturing the ambience of Baltimore in 1962 was key, said production designer David Gropman. Before creating the sets for "Hairspray" he toured the Highlandtown neighborhood of East Baltimore where Waters filmed the original movie.
The neighborhood is in a 1960s time warp with the row houses little changed from that time. Many are still covered in Formstone, fake stone that was put over brick to give it a fresh look -- much like aluminum siding was put over wood. It's a distinctive local architectural detail.
The house where Tracy lives with Edna, her laundress mom (John Travolta in drag), and Wilbur, her joke shop-owner dad (Christopher Walken) has the fake stone look in the movie. An area of East Baltimore Street at North East Street was re-created in Toronto, where the production team converted some 60 modern-day buildings into Baltimore circa 1962.
Gropman said the streets were given such a Baltimore look, "I don't think people would know the difference."
The three-block area is the setting in the movie for the big production numbers "Good Morning Baltimore" and "Welcome to the Sixties." Waters appears in the "Good Morning Baltimore" scene in a cameo role as a neighborhood flasher.
While the movie is not exactly a travelogue, Gropman said the closest people can come to a "Hairspray" ambience is taking a stroll around Highlandtown. "If they like what they see in the movie they should definitely go to Baltimore," he said.
There were plenty of beehives on display in Highlandtown in the late 1950s and early '60s, but not these days. For beehives, head to the kitschy Hampden neighborhood, where Waters filmed the 1998 movie "Pecker."
